Frozen Hearts
by Starkreactor
Summary: He bent towards her neck and she tried to pull away, pressing herself into the rock. He skimmed his nose along her throat and inhaled deeply, stopping at her ear. "What are you afraid of, Pond? What will you do, now that you know monsters are real?" Discontinued, sorry
1. Monster

Amy tried desperately to calm her breathing.

A piece of rubble falling.

"Pond..."

Amelia felt her body shiver uncontrollably and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the quivering sound, the warped beauty of the voice she had known since childhood. Her breath shuddered through her and she pressed her back to the cold stone wall, trying to become invisible, trying to disappear.

"Do you really think you can run, Pond?"

Amy's frantic heartbeat tried to urge her on, but she was frozen by the icy frost that had deformed his voice.

"I will find you."

She could hear him pause and her stomach clenched in agonizing fear. She tried to peer around the corner, her long hair framing her terrified face. She could see nothing through the dark.

A soft sound of life, the barest rustle of clothing, and she could imagine his movement in the pitch black, the lithe, catlike strides, the searching eyes that were once a kind, a warm green, like her Aunt's garden in the golden light of the sunset.

"Look, out of the corner of your eye..." She heard him whisper, far closer to her than she had guessed. She gasped violently and pulled back against the wall, hitting her shoulder painfully, covering her mouth to hold in a scream.

"Where are you going to run?" his voice ghosted over her neck, chilling her to the bone.

"Where are you going to hide from your Doctor, little Amelia?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, tears escaping them, her throat constricting painfully. Why did it have to be him? The one she had always been able to trust, why him?

"Open your eyes, Pond."

He was so close she could feel his cold breath mist over her skin, leaving an icy frost on her pale features. Her eyes fluttered open and she whimpered. He was right in front of her, barely inches from her face, his hands on either side of her, trapping her against the wall.

"Amelia Pond." He sighed, his bright red eyes flicking almost leisurely down her throat. "Such a little girl inside." He bent towards her neck and she tried to pull away, pressing herself into the rock. He skimmed his nose along her throat and inhaled deeply, stopping at her ear. "What are you afraid of, Pond? What will you do, now that you know monsters are real?" He asked, whispering in her ear. Amy could do nothing but let another tear streak down her cheek. She lurched violently when the Doctor's icy fingers brushed it away.

"What will you do, now that there is no one left to protect you?" His head cocked teasingly to one side, his lips quirking into a twisted version of the smile she had loved. A white fang glinted.

His words hung in the air, a dagger to her aching heart.

What _was_ she supposed to do when the monster that was going to be the one to take her life, was her Doctor?


	2. Caves of the Vell

WOW. This is AMAZING. You guys really are awesome. Up for less than two days and seven reviews? I love you! Thank you so much and I'm so glad you all like it so very much! Enjoy chapter 2!

* * *

><p>"Middle of the silver age in the asteroid belt of Saturn Six, far edge of the Milky Way Forty Five, this is definitely where the distress signal came from. So where is everybody?" The Doctor thought out loud, standing up from where he had licked the rock in the cave currently occupied by Amy, Rory, the TARDIS, and himself. Amy <em>really<em> wanted to tell the Doctor to stop licking things, but she was too busy trying to explain to Rory why on earth he did that in the first place.

The Doctor held a finger up and sniffed curiously. "Residual radiation waves, definitely the tail end of the Vell's sort of transmission, which means it stopped broadcasting within the last hour or so..." He trailed off, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and waving it in one direction, following the invisible trail as his screwdriver led him with its high pitched whine.

"So, he can tell the year and place by _licking_?" Rory said for the hundredth time, trying to wrap his head around it as he watched the Doctor circle the TARDIS, following the 'residual trail'.

Amy shrugged. "Guess so. That's usually what he says when he licks something, some rubbish about the date and place. The only time I've seen him use his tongue for something besides location detecting was when he ate, and then he was far too busy to comment."

"This might be a bit of a problem, how are we supposed to know what went wrong if there is no one here to tell us?" The Doctor said indignantly, completely oblivious to Amy and Rory's conversation about him.

"Maybe that's what went wrong, everyone just disappeared." Amy said as though the Doctor were daft.

"But _someone_ had to send the signal. So where is that someone?" The Doctor said, moving to examine another bit of rock.

"Gone?" Rory suggested, looking curiously behind the TARDIS. "There's more of a tunnel back here, maybe we should head that way." He suggested, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"Yes, alright. Come along Ponds." The Doctor said brightly, brushing past Rory and heading down the tunnel.

"Williams, it's Williams." Rory mumbled, throwing his hands up at the futility of ever trying to correct the Doctor.

"Oh, come on grumpy Pond." Amy said, grabbing Rory's shirt collar and pulling him in for a kiss before heading off after the Doctor, leaving her husband to follow her in a daze.

"What, is that?" Amy asked, breathless at the sight before her. They hadn't walked very far down the tunnel before it had opened into a gaping mouth facing an explosion of light swirling and stretching before them.

"Space. One arm of the Milky Way specifically. This asteroid is so big it has its own air supply generated by tiny bits of lichen in the rock, and the minor gravitational pull generated by the mass keeps the air in. Put simply, in here is safe. Out there is a void. Beyond the edge of the rock the atmosphere ends. This is a very delicate environment, so don't go near. Look, don't touch." He warned, distracted by the readings on his sonic. He tapped it against his palm in frustration. "This makes NO sense! What could have gotten in here without disturbing the air supply? The Vell are a native species to these asteroids, they have a symbiotic relationship with it, so they never developed a way in or out." He checked his watch, tapping it as well. "This is also too soon in most galaxies for anything to be mining these for diamonds...So there really is no reason for anyone to have come in here."

"Wait, diamonds?" Amy asked suddenly, breaking her gaze from the Milky Way.

"Unless it was here to eat, but anything that wouldn't leave evidence would be too big to avoid disrupting the air layer."

"Doctor, did you say _diamonds?_?"

"Of course, we haven't explored further into the asteroid yet, they may have tunneled deeper to avoid the threat. Or it could be some sort of disintegrating virus, but then the TARDIS would have warned us."

"How big are they?" Amy asked, starting to look around the cave walls as if she expected the precious stones to just start dropping from the cieling.

"Disintegrating virus?" Rory repeated worridly.

"They must be further in..." The Doctor muttered. "I could have sworn the TARDIS was picking up life forms near the core, that must be where they went for shelter." He started to head back towards the TARDIS. "That would have to be it, the field isn't strong enough to disrupt the TARDIS' sensors, and that distress signal trail would have dissipated by now if I'd been late..."

"Are they buried, or just sort of in the walls?"

"Come on Amy." Rory sighed, pulling his wife along with him this time. If both her and the Doctor were planning on staying in their own little worlds, he supposed it was his job to keep them all together. Besides, he couldn't get the idea of a disintegrating virus out of his head. He'd been disintegrated once, that was enough.

"Did you see any diamonds Rory?"

* * *

><p>"Doctor, did you see that?" Amy asked, suddenly serious. The group had doubled back and passed by the TARDIS again, working their way deeper into the cavern when Amy froze, staring up near the top of the very high ceilinged passage.<p>

"The signal is coming most prominently from this direction..." The Doctor muttered, his screwdriver buzzing faintly and lighting the dim cavern with green light.

Amy elbowed him sharply and he jumped. "Doctor!" She hissed, jerking her head towards the right side of the tunnel where a deep shelf of rock hid itself from the light of the screwdriver. "Something moved up there."

The Doctor looked to where she had motioned, squinting in the dim light. "Rory, have you got a torch on you?"

Rory obligingly flicked on his torch, pointing it up towards the recess in the rock. The light had steadily been waning the further they went into the tunnels, and Rory had been smart enough to run back to the TARDIS and grab the necessary tool before Amy and the Doctor got too far away looking for Vells and diamonds.

"What did you see?" Rory asked, leaning over to where Amy was, trying to crane his neck to see whatever she'd seen.

"Some sort of skittering like creature, almost like a big bug." Amy said, shuddering at the thought.

"The Vells do look much like a large preying mantids, but they are normally very cordial and polite. If one was acting feral then that means it was scared." The Doctor said, his brow furrowed as he searched the rock with his eyes and screwdriver.

"How large is large?" Rory asked nervously, looking all around now.

"About five feet tall." The Doctor said nonchalantly.

Rory gulped.

"Hello? Is anyone there? We got your distress signal, we're here to help." The Doctor tried, moving towards the hole in the cave side. It was higher in the wall than he was tall, so after he didn't get a response he put his screwdriver in his mouth and started to climb.

Rory and Amy watched him continue to climb until he pulled himself up on the ledge several feet above their heads. Once he got to the shelf he continued to move into the recess, and soon he disappeared from sight.

"Doctor?" Rory said tentitively. "What's up there?" He heard some movement and the Doctor's head re-appeared over the edge of the ledge.

"It's not a recess, it's a tunnel. Come on, the signal gets stronger up here. I think you might have found the primary tunnel into their home caves." The Doctor said, grinning.

"Great." Rory said under his breath, tossing the torch up to the Doctor so his hands were free to climb.

Once Amy and Rory both made it to the top of the ledge, the Doctor kept going, all three of them forced to crawl in the lower tunnel. Just when Amy was starting to feel claustrophobic, the Doctor disappeared from in front of her and she was staring into a vast darkness.

"Doctor?" She called, panicking some.

"I'm alright." He called back, just a few feet below her. "There's a small drop to the floor, but we're in the main chamber." The green light of the sonic suddenly illuminated the cavern and the Doctor's frame glowed into visibility below her. She gasped. Reflecting the green light was a vast cavern that looked like the inside of a geode- the whole cave was encrusted with diamonds.

But that wasn't what had caught her attention.

Strewn across the glittering floor were hundreds of Vell bodies. The Doctor was crouched near one, inspecting it with his screwdriver.

"What is it Amy?...Amy?" Rory asked worriedly, trying to see around his wife unsuccessfully. The tunnel was too narrow. Instead of telling him, Amy followed the Doctor's path and dropped to the floor, covering her mouth in shock as she saw the bodies lying everywhere. Rory followed soon after and in the light of his torch she could see that the Vell were a light green, their faces very mantid like, but also much more intelligent and familiar looking than the predatory insects Amy was used to back on Earth. She knelt next to a young one near her feet and touched the body gently. It was ice cold and a layer of frost came off on her fingers, melting slowly.

"What happened here?" Rory said quietly, similarly effected by the sight.

"I don't know." The Doctor said darkly, straightening up. "Something got inside of them and devoured them from the inside out. Some kind of parasite." He said softly, his entire stance and body language radiating righteous anger. "It sucked the life force out of them like a spider would."

Amy shivered and buried her head in Rory's shoulder.


	3. Spread

"What happened to them?" Amy whispered, still sticking close to Rory and looking down at the juvenile at her feet. His crumpled form made her throat go tight and she blinked away tears.

"I said." The Doctor snapped unintentionally. "They were drained dry. All that's left are the frozen shells that used to be a massive colony of Vell." He rubbed his hand up over his face and through his hair.

"What do we do, I mean, what would be able to do all this?" Rory asked, his arm protectively around Amy's shoulder.

The Doctor paced back and forth for a moment, looking more than irritated. "I don't know. It has to be something smaller than my fist, but something powerful enough to cause so much damage..."

"Maybe it was some kind of insect that could have burrowed into them." Rory suggested. "You mentioned it looks like parasite damage."

"Could be, but I don't understand how it could have gotten so many of them so quickly." The Doctor said under his breath.

Rory approached him quietly. "Doctor," He said, putting his hand on the Time Lord's shoulder and lowering his voice so Amy couldn't hear. "Would we be able to tell more if we dissect one of them?"

The Doctor stared long at one of the corpses, almost like he hadn't heard Rory. Finally, he spoke. "Yes. Probably. The TARDIS scanners can tell us more than my screwdriver. Help me carry one and we'll head back."

"Doctor- did you see that?" Amy asked suddenly, pointing the torch she had taken from Rory up towards the ceiling.

The Doctor looked up, but all he was met with was the glittering ceiling. He moved back to stand by Amy, craning his neck to see whatever she had seen. "No, what did you see?" He asked, eyes flicking back and forth.

"It moved fast, it almost looked like one of the Vell." She said, moving the torch beam around, trying to see the creature. "Could one of them have survived?"

"It's possible." The Doctor admitted, suddenly spotting another cave entrance a few feet up the wall in front of them. "There." He pointed. "It must have gone up there." The Doctor moved forward and inspected the wall with his hands, trying to see if he could get a good foothold. Thankfully the walls were jagged and craggy, so he had no trouble climbing up to the ledge once again. "Amy, Rory, you stay here. I'm only going a bit down this way, I'll be right back. Stay together." The Doctor called over his shoulder before disappearing.

"Doctor, I really don't think we should split-" Rory called, but the Doctor was already gone. "Up." He finished, looking defeated. Why did no one ever listen to him?

"Rory, I don't like this. What could be so quick that it slaughtered a whole room of Vell when they obviously know ways in and out? I mean, it doesn't look like they were blocked in." Amy said, crouching down to look again at one of the bodies and then looking up and shining the torch around the chamber. She was right, there were several exits dotting the upper walls and ceiling. So what had kept them in?

"I don't know Amy, but I don't like the fact that he just took off." Rory said with exasperation. "I mean, what do we do if something happens to him, or us?"

The Doctor didn't have to go far before he found what Amy had seen. The tunnel the creature had entered was only a few feet long and then opened into what must have been a small sleeping chamber. At first it seemed empty, but when the Doctor swept his screwdriver around the cavern he saw a quivering Vell curled in one corner of the room.

"Shh, it's alright. I'm the Doctor, I'm here to help." He soothed. "Can you tell me what happened?" He asked gently, setting his screwdriver to torch only mode so the creature wouldn't be frightened by the noise.

The Vell cocked its head at him, antennae twitching slowly and front claws held up defensively. It's mouth worked soundlessly and the Doctor noticed a red foam dripping from the mandibles.

"You're not well." The Doctor said gently, trying to inch closer. "Let me help you, I have a medical bay close by, I can cure you. Whatever is wrong, I can help." He said, almost pleading. "Can you tell me what happened? Was there an attack, a virus, a parasite?" He prodded, inching ever closer. The Vell didn't move a muscle, only continued to stare straight at him with an unblinking and unwavering stare, almost like it didn't quite see him. The green light from the sonic cast eerie shadows on the cave wall and the diamond reflected strange rays of light. As the Doctor got closer he could see the Vell's exoskeleton was covered in a thin layer of frost. Silently, the Doctor switched his screwdriver over and scanned the creature for clues.

He didn't even have time to diagnose the problem before it was too late.

Rory was getting nervous. The Doctor had been gone for ten minutes. What if he'd gotten lost, what if he'd hurt himself? What if the creature had eaten him? Rory looked down at the sharp mandibles on one of the bodies by his feet and quickly looked away again. It definitely didn't look like they were vegetarian...

"I'm going after him." Amy suddenly announced, heading for the wall and beginning to climb.

"I'm with you." Rory said, following her up with the torch he had gotten back in his mouth. Once they got to the top they both began to crawl through the tunnel, thankfully wide enough for two people to go side-by-side this time.

"Doctor?" Amy called, reaching the bedchamber first. "Are you here? Did you find anything?" She called, worried as Rory's torch picked up no trace of the Doctor. Suddenly she gasped. She saw blood pooling near the Doctor's hand, laying limp on the floor.

"Doctor!" She gasped, running to kneel next to him as Rory followed her with his torch. "Doctor, wake up, what happened?" She pleaded, cradling his face in her hands.

The Doctor was unconscious and bleeding from a cut in his hand, his forehead, and several jagged wounds in his throat and shoulder. Nearby another dead Vell lay, fresh blood gleaming on its jaws and claws. Rory immediately took off his jacket and pressed it to the wound at the Doctor's throat, trying to stem the bleeding. With his other hand he took the Time Lord's wrist in hand and felt both pulse points for life.

Frost was already gathering on the Doctor's lashes.


	4. Rising

Thank you all so much for the reviews and alerts and faves! I LOVE YOU ALL! Here is the next chapter =D

* * *

><p>"Rory, help him!" Amy commanded hysterically, looking at her husband in panic.<p>

"I'm trying Amy, I don't know what's wrong with him. He's alive, but he's cold and he's loosing blood fast." Rory said back, trying to keep his medical composure. One of the Doctor's hearts was still beating strong, but the other was fading in his wrist, most likely because of the blood loss. 'He must have separate cardio-vascular systems' Rory realized. And one had been torn right open. Rory's jacket was soaked in blood already, and the wrist in his hand was growing increasingly colder.

"Uh, Amy, we need to get him some medical help, but I don't think we can carry him back to the TARDIS. You stay here and monitor his condition. Keep your hand here" He said, guiding her hand to the Doctor's bleeding shoulder "And here." He placed her other hand at the Doctor's throat. "Make sure at least one of his hearts keep on beating. I'll be back as soon as I can with the first aid kit from the med lab." He kissed Amy quickly and she nodded.

"Be careful." She said, eyes pleading. "I don't want you hurt too."

Rory looked solemnly over his shoulder at her for a moment before nodding. "I will. Just, keep pressure on that wound. And call me if anything happens."

With that, Rory was gone with the torch and Amy and the Doctor were left in darkness. Amy fumbled across the Doctor's body for his sonic screwdriver, and found it still held in his slack hand. Amy had to bite back a cry when it almost slipped out of her hand because of blood. "Don't die Doctor, you can't die, not now. Not yet." Amy said determinedly, fumbling with the screwdriver to set it to its torch setting. She finally got it and set the now lit device in a crevice on the wall, filling the small chamber with an eerie green light. It didn't help that half the room was covered in blood and the other half held a dead Vell.

Now all she had was to wait. It was the part she hated most. She was a girl of action, not of waiting. And now she was bound. She focused on pressing Rory's soaked jacket to the Doctor's wounds, wondering how on earth he could have so much blood in him in the first place. Or how he could be living with that much of it outside of his body. She pressed her fingers deeper into his throat for re-assurance and she felt the steady throb of one heart. The other had fallen silent or merely become undetectable from the lack of blood in that heart's system. Deciding that she would be useful one way or the other, Amy started looking around for something she could use as a tourniquet on the Doctor's arm, just in case his other system was loosing blood as well. Just as she was slipping the thin belt she was wearing around her waist off and tying it tight around the Doctor's shoulder, the downed alien moved, his eyes fluttering open and his face pinched with pain.

"A-my?" He asked blearily, squinting up at her. His features were pale, and Amy could have sworn she saw frost gathering on his lips and eyes, though she wrote it off as her wet eyes reacting badly to the green light.

"I'm here Doctor," she reassured him. "Rory's gone to get the first aid kit, you're going to be all right."

"What-" He coughed dryly, his chest heaving as he tried to breathe "What happened?"

"You came in here to try and talk with one of the Vell and it attacked you. That's all we know." Amy said, glancing over at the body.

The Doctor's tired eyes rolled over to take in the body slumped against the far wall, its dead eyes still staring right at him.

"Amy, is it cold in here?" The Doctor suddenly rasped, looking up at Amy like and inquisitive child.

Amy shook her head, biting her lip in worry. "No Doctor, it's actually pretty warm. Why, are you cold?"

He nodded. "It's rather a strange sort of cold though. Is this what it feels like to be human?" He asked, one bloody hand reaching up to rest on his chest, over his only beating heart.

"I suppose...Doctor maybe you should try not to talk, you need your strength. You seem a bit out of it..." Amy said warily, watching the Doctor's distracted expression laze around the room.

"One. One. One." he chuckled to himself. "Amy Pond, feel this." He said suddenly, like he hadn't heard her at all.

"Doctor please, you've lost a lot of blood and I think it's effecting your judgement..." The Doctor grabbed her hand and pressed it to his chest. Amy looked at him with pity. "Well, more than your judgement is normally effected anyway."

"Just one. Contract, relax." The Doctor mumbled, almost like he was drunk. "And you say your heartbeat goes one two! When in fact, mine goes one two. NOT one two three four. You know, I think the Master really does have drums in his head if he thinks that his hearts are making that sort of noise."

Amy did not have a clue what he was on about now, and if he had been drunk this would have been quite funny, but as it was she was only growing increasingly worried. "Doctor," She almost pleaded. "Please stay still until Rory can get back. Just stop talking Doctor, for once in your life, stop talking."

"Amelia Pond, did you just tell me to shut up?" the Doctor said loudly, looking up at her almost in indignation.

"Yes, I did. Now do it!" Amy said, staring back at him with exasperation.

The Doctor fell silent, once again lost in the fog of his blood-loss. Amy rolled her eyes and went back to pressing on his wound, checking to see if it had bled any more. It looked like the bleeding had pretty much stopped.

"Amelia, you are blue." The Doctor said matter-of factly. He was blinking up at her, looking more clear headed than she'd ever seen him. That worried her further.

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

"Then what color are you?"

"The same color I always am." Amy said indignantly. "Now stay still."

The Doctor fell silent, and in those few minutes Amy studied his face. His eyes looked glazed over, and though she couldn't tell accurately in the green light, the film almost looked like...ice. Now that she looked more closely, she could see frost coating his eyelashes and spreading out over his brow and the fringe of his hair.

"Doctor.." Amy said, placing her palm on his forehead. "You're really cold..."

The Doctor didn't answer. He merely stared ahead, and with a shock, Amy realized that the Doctor had stopped breathing. He was completely still, his eyes glazed over with a layer of ice. Shocked, Amy pulled the jacket away to look at his wound, finding frozen blood capping his shoulder like an unnatural scab. Amy quickly placed her hand on the Doctor's chest, but she could feel nothing.

"Doctor!" Amy shouted, not knowing what to do. Her hands flitted in useless panic up and down his body. "Doctor, please. Don't do this! Rory's on his way..." Amy said, tears welling in her eyes.

Suddenly, the Doctor's body twitched, as though reacting to an electrical shock. His eyes remained blank, but he continued to twitch unnaturally, his body shivering methodically and breaking free of what had become almost an imperceptible ice chrysalis. The shards of ice slid off of him, and before Amy could make a sound he turned his head sharply to look at her. His eyes were still glazed like two marbles in his head, but even as she watched they began to shine, like metal heating hotter and hotter. The ice melted, streaming down his cheeks like demonic tears, leaving his eyes a burning, glowing red. He lay there staring at her, and Amy couldn't help but let out a scream and shrink back.

"A-live. I'm, a-live." The Doctor said, his voice uncertain. He twitched his fingers and turned his head slowly to look at himself as he inhaled, sitting up. "Alive..." he hissed, steam rolling off of his body like a sulfurous Hell spawn. "Allive...Amelia Pond." He grinned, an evil, warped grin, and under his pale lips sharp fangs glinted.


	5. Trapped

Thank you all SO much for all of the reviews and alerts! I'm so happy you are enjoying this! Please, please, don't quit on me now! Keep those coming and I'll do my best with the chapters!

* * *

><p>Rory didn't think he'd ever run so fast in his life- especially not through such treacherous territory. But he couldn't help it. Something in his gut was gnawing away at his calm and bleeding panic into his blood- like he'd already run out of time. The Doctor could be dying, and Amy was with him. Rory's instinct told him that was not a good thing. Tunnel after winding tunnel felt like he was getting lost inside of a giant maze, one he was starting to fear would swallow him before he could get back to the Doctor and his wife. His heart in his mouth, Rory started to panic as he rounded another corner and hit another dead end.<p>

Breathing deeply and closing his eyes to try and calm down, Rory turned around and took another path, his heart leaping with relief when the TARDIS came into view. Running for the familiar blue box, Rory pulled the key out of his shirt where it hung on a dog tag chain and turned it in the lock, bursting through the doors as he felt the seconds drain away- and he stopped in his tracks. The TARDIS was lit and glowing, but it wasn't the warm, honey gold it normally was. It was a bloody, macabre _red_. The air was frosty cold, and as Rory steadied himself against a railing his fingers slipped on a layer of frost. His breath heaved out of him in a cloud of frozen vapor. The hum of the TARDIS seemed low and sinister.

Swallowing his fear, Rory pressed on, not knowing what to do but go after the supplies and get back to the Doctor and Amy. If he was lucky, then the TARDIS only looked strange and wouldn't go after him. As he raced through the corridors, his shoes skidding on the frosted glass floor, he couldn't help but think that he was hoping in vain. Lights flickered in their sickly red behind him, and a dark liquid oozed like congealing blood down the walls, the floor shuddering slightly and a sinister rumble following the determined human as he raced for the much needed supplies.

"Doctor- what's going on? What's wrong with you?" Amy asked, trying to keep her voice from thickening with frightened tears.

The Doctor looked up at his name, but not with recognition. He looked much the same way a newborn would look just because there was a new sound- not because he actually realized that 'Doctor' was his self-given name. Suddenly, his face changed to one of demonic recognition and he moved forward, crawling on his hands and knees, his movements lithe and panther like, his eyes levelly staring at her. Amy skittered backwards, desperate to keep her distance from him and his burningly red eyes. She hugged her knees to her chest and closed her eyes, tears streaking down her face as the Doctor suddenly settled next to her, poised over her like a curious predator. "You meant me." The Doctor's voice said near her ear, as he suddenly sat back and mimicked her position, with his knees drawn up, his forearms resting on them. His voice was still recognizable, but the beautiful, deep, reassuring voice she'd always loved had been replaced by one icy and smooth, his breath a cold chill raising goosebumps over her skin. "I often forget my new title when I move." He said nonchalantly, as if the fact that she was Amy and he was the Doctor and that was all that mattered mattered little.

"What do you mean, move?" Amy asked, her voice quivering.

"Skip, move, transfer. It's hard to sustain a life like mine when you don't have a solid body anymore." The creature said, almost sadly. The Doctor's haunting eyes board into Amy, looking for a twisted kind of sympathy. "The bodies don't last very long, and then I have to find a new host."

Amy bit back a panicked whimper.

"This one though-" the thing said, running its hands down the Doctor's chest. "This one may last a bit longer." He tweaked the bowtie and smiled, in a sick imitation of one of the Doctor's own habits. "Excellent metabolism. And the tissues are MUCH better at absorbing massive quantities of energy." He shrugged, settling his head back against the wall again. "He would survive longer if he had some kind of nourishment to sustain him though."

Amy felt her heart jump and she skittered away from him, pressing herself into a corner of the chamber, trying to get near the door.

The Doctor didn't seem to notice. "How about it Pond?" He asked slyly, finally turning his head to face her, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Are you willing to give up everything so he can live just a little bit longer? I know you care about him; I can see it in your eyes. I can feel it in his head." He said, tapping his temple with a long finger.

Amy was trembling so badly she could barely keep herself steady as she reached for the entrance to the cave, realizing with a drop in her stomach that the sonic screwdriver was still sitting on the floor near the far end of the cave. She would have to cross in front of him to get to it, and without it she would be in total darkness. Her eyes darted to the small lifeline, and the Doctor's ruby orbs tracked her movement.

"I'll give you thirty seconds, Pond." He said, freezing her in her tracks right as she began to move towards the sonic. "How you use them is totally up to you. But I think it's fair to warn you that I can see in the dark quite brilliantly. The light would only make my job simpler."

Amy hesitated for a moment, her fear holding her hostage as her brain raced for what to do.

"30."

She glanced over to him, then at the entrance.

"29."

She didn't know what to do.

"24."

Had that much time passed already? Or was he toying with her?

"20."

With one last agonizing look at the sonic screwdriver, Amy tore away into the darkness, the silhouette of her beloved Doctor outlined by the once friendly green glow of the device he always carried.

Once out of the cave, Amy realized she was now forced to her hands and knees so that she could feel her way through, the sharp stones and crystals cutting into her hands. Reaching the ledge, Amy dropped down as carefully as she could, still completely blind. As she fell, her foot landed wrong on one of the fallen Vell and she stifled a cry as she twisted her ankle, falling to her hands and knees and scraping her palms. Bringing them up as she tried to stand, she felt something hot and sticky and realized she had cut herself. Trying to get her bearings, Amy looked all around her in vain, the pitch black making her quest impossible. And she knew that the Doctor would be following her any moment. For all she knew, the blood would make her easier to find. Rubbing her hands on her jeans to try and get rid of some of the wet substance, Amy suddenly froze as part of the cavern came into view. At first, she couldn't figure out where the light was coming from, but then she looked down at her feet, astonished to find some of the diamonds coating the floor glowing a dull red. Looking closer, Amy realized the diamonds were glowing where her blood had touched them. Suddenly sensing hope, she darted over to the far edge of the circle of light the diamonds afforded her and picked up a chunk of the gem that lay loose near the cliff face she'd just jumped from. As she picked up the peach sized object it began to glow. Using the bloody rock for light, Amy struck out into the massive cavern, bolting away just as she heard the voice behind her, echoing into the eternal night.

"Come on little Pond, come away with me. Come away with your Doctor."


End file.
